Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 134 / Friday, July 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 37681 

1North American Industry Classification System. 

currently funded EAC projects, as 

estimated in the table below. 

Project information Estimated 

amount 

Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium, Project: Center for Education Equity ............................................................................................... $1,640,562 

Intercultural Development Research Association, Project: IDRA Equity Assistance Center South ................................................... 1,641,567 

Indiana University, Project: Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center ....................................................................................... 1,607,310 

Metropolitan State University of Denver, Project: Western Educational Equity Assistance Center (WEEAC) .................................. 1,642,170 

Please note that the Department is not 

bound by the estimates in this table. 

Any activities carried out under these 

continuation awards must be consistent 

with the scope and objectives of the 

grantees’ applications as approved in 

the FY 2016 competition. The 

requirements for continuation awards 

are set forth in 34 CFR 75.253. 

Regulatory Flexibility Act Certification 

The Secretary certifies that the waiver 

and extension of the project period 

would not have a significant economic 

impact on a substantial number of small 

entities. The only entities that would be 

affected by the waiver and extension of 

the project period are the current 

grantees. The Secretary certifies that the 

waiver and extension would not have a 

significant economic impact on these 

entities, because the extension of an 

existing project period imposes minimal 

compliance costs, and the activities 

required to support the additional year 

of funding would not impose additional 

regulatory burdens or require 

unnecessary Federal supervision. 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

This notice of final waiver and 

extension of the project period does not 

contain any information collection 

requirements. 

Intergovernmental Review 

This program is subject to Executive 

Order 12372 and the regulations in 34 

CFR part 79. One of the objectives of the 

Executive order is to foster an 

intergovernmental partnership and a 

strengthened federalism. The Executive 

order relies on processes developed by 

State and local governments for 

coordination and review of proposed 

Federal financial assistance. This 

document provides notification of our 

specific plans and actions for this 

program. 

Accessible Format: On request to the 

program contact person listed under FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, 

individuals with disabilities can obtain 

this document in an accessible format. 

The Department will provide the 

requestor with an accessible format that 

may include Rich Text Format (RTF) or 

text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 

file, braille, large print, audiotape, or 

compact disc, or other accessible format. 

Electronic Access to This Document: 

The official version of this document is 

the document published in the Federal 

Register. You may access the official 

edition of the Federal Register and the 

Code of Federal Regulations at 

www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can 

view this document, as well as all other 

documents of this Department 

published in the Federal Register, in 

text or Portable Document Format 

(PDF). To use PDF, you must have 

Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is 

available free at the site. 

You may also access documents of the 

Department published in the Federal 

Register by using the article search 

feature at www.federalregister.gov. 

Specifically, through the advanced 

search feature at this site, you can limit 

your search to documents published by 

the Department. 

Ian Rosenblum, 

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and 

Programs Delegated the Authority to Perform 

the Functions and Duties of the Assistant 

Secretary, Office of Elementary and 

Secondary Education. 

[FR Doc. 2021–15162 Filed 7–15–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 80 

[EPA–HQ–OAR–2018–0114; FRL–10025–34– 

OAR] 

Removal of the Federal Reformulated 

Gasoline Program From the Southern 

Maine Area 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Notification of final action on 

petition. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is taking final action in 

announcing its approval of the petition 

by Maine to opt-out of the Federal 

reformulated gasoline (RFG) program 

and remove the requirement to sell 

Federal RFG for York, Cumberland, 

Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Kennebec, 

Knox and Lincoln counties (the 

Southern Maine Area), which are part of 

the Portland and Midcoast Ozone 

Maintenance Areas for the 1997 ozone 

national ambient air quality standard 

(NAAQS). EPA has determined that this 

removal of the Federal RFG program for 

the Southern Maine Area is consistent 

with the applicable provisions of the 

Clean Air Act (CAA) and EPA’s 

regulations. 

DATES: The effective date for removal of 

the Southern Maine Area from the 

Federal RFG program is September 30, 

2021. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Mark Coryell, Office of Transportation 

and Air Quality, U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency, 2000 Traverwood, 

Ann Arbor, MI 48105; telephone 

number: (734) 214–4446; email address: 

coryell.mark@epa.gov or Rudy 

Kapichak, Office of Transportation and 

Air Quality, U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency, 2000 Traverwood, 

Ann Arbor, MI 48105; telephone 

number: 734–214–4574; email address: 

kapichak.rudolph@epa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. General Information 

A. Does this action apply to me? 

Entities potentially affected by this 

final action are fuel producers and 

distributors who do business in the 

Southern Maine Area. 

Examples of potentially regulated 

entities 

NAICS1

codes 

Petroleum refineries ..................... 324110 

424710 

Gasoline Marketers and Distributors ............................................ 424720 

Gasoline Retail Stations ............... 447110 

Gasoline Transporters .................. 484220 

484230 

The above table is not intended to be 

exhaustive, but rather provides a guide 

for readers regarding entities likely to be 

regulated by this action. The table lists 

the types of entities of which EPA is 

aware that potentially could be affected 


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37682 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 134 / Friday, July 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 

2Pursuant to CAA sections 211(c) and (k) and 

301(a), EPA promulgated regulations at 40 CFR 

80.72 to provide criteria and general procedures for 

states to opt-out of the RFG program where the state 

had previously voluntarily opted into the program. 

The regulations were initially adopted on July 8, 

1996 (61 FR 35673) (the RFG ‘‘Opt-out Rule’’); were 

revised on October 20, 1997 (62 FR 54552) and were 

subsequently revised on December 4, 2020 (85 FR 

78412). 

by this final action. Other types of 

entities not listed on the table could also 

be affected by this final action. To 

determine whether your organization 

could be affected by this final action, 

you should carefully examine the 

regulations in 40 CFR part 1090. If you 

have questions regarding the 

applicability of this action to a 

particular entity, see the FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT section of this 

preamble. 

B. How can I get copies of this document 

and other related information? 

EPA has established a docket for this 

action under Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– 

OAR–2021–0243. All documents in the 

docket are listed on the 

www.regulations.gov website. Although 

listed in the index, some information 

may not be publicly available, e.g., 

Confidential Business Information (CBI) 

or other information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Certain other 

material, such as copyrighted material, 

is not placed on the internet and will be 

publicly available only in hard copy 

form. Publicly available docket 

materials are available electronically 

through www.regulations.gov. 

II. Background 

A. What is the Federal RFG program? 

The 1990 CAA Amendments (CAA) 

established specific requirements for the 

Federal RFG program to reduce ozone 

levels in certain areas in the country 

experiencing ground-level ozone or 

smog problems by reducing vehicle 

emissions of compounds that form 

ozone, specifically volatile organic 

compounds (VOCs). CAA section 

211(k)(5) directed EPA to issue 

regulations that specify how gasoline 

can be ‘‘reformulated’’ to result in 

significant reductions in vehicle 

emissions of ozone-forming and toxic 

air pollutants relative to the 1990 

baseline fuel, and to require the use of 

such reformulated gasoline in certain 

‘‘covered areas.’’ The CAA defined 

certain nonattainment areas as ‘‘covered 

areas’’ that are required to use RFG and 

provided other areas with an ability to 

‘‘opt-in’’ to the RFG program. CAA 

section 211(k)(6) provides an 

opportunity for an area classified as a 

Marginal, Moderate, Serious, or Severe 

ozone nonattainment area, or which is 

in the ozone transport region 

established by CAA section 184(a), to 

‘‘opt-in’’ to the RFG program upon 

application by the governor of the state 

(or authorized representative) and 

subsequent action by EPA. 

Similar to other RFG covered areas, 

RFG opt-in areas are subject to the 

prohibition in section 211(k)(5) on the 

sale or dispensing by any person of 

conventional (non-RFG) gasoline to 

ultimate consumers in the covered area. 

The prohibition also includes the sale or 

dispensing by any refiner, blender, 

importer, or marketer of conventional 

gasoline for resale in any covered areas, 

without segregating the conventional 

gasoline from RFG and clearly marking 

conventional gasoline as not for sale to 

ultimate consumers in a covered area. 

EPA first published regulations for the 

RFG program on February 16, 1994 (59 

FR 7716). 

On July 23, 2013, the Governor of 

Maine formally requested, pursuant to 

CAA section 211(k)(6)(B), that the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

extend the requirement for the sale of 

RFG to the Southern Maine Area 

beginning on May 1, 2014. The Maine 

legislature subsequently enacted an 

emergency law, Public Law 2013 c.452, 

effective March 6, 2014, to postpone the 

requirement for the sale of RFG in the 

Southern Maine Area until June 1, 2015. 

Pursuant to that legislation, the 

Commissioner of the Maine DEP 

submitted a request to the EPA on 

March 10, 2014, modifying Maine’s 

request for the implementation date for 

the sale of RFG in the Southern Maine 

Area to coincide with the new June 1, 

2015 effective date. A current listing of 

the RFG covered areas and a summary 

of RFG requirements can be found on 

EPA’s website at: https://www.epa.gov/ 

gasoline-standards/reformulatedgasoline. 

B. RFG Opt-Out Procedures 

The RFG opt-out regulations (40 

CFR1090.290—Changes to RFG covered 

areas and procedures for opting out of 

RFG) provide the process and criteria 

for a reasonable transition out of the 

RFG program if a state decides to optout.2 These RFG opt-out regulations 

provide that the governor of the state 

must submit a petition to the 

Administrator requesting to opt-out of 

the RFG program. The petition must 

include specific information on how, if 

at all, the state has relied on RFG in a 

proposed or approved state 

implementation plan (SIP) or plan 

revision and, if RFG is relied upon, how 

the SIP will be revised to reflect the 

state’s opt-out from RFG. The opt-out 

regulations also provide that EPA will 

notify the state in writing of the 

Agency’s action on the petition and the 

date the opt-out becomes effective (i.e., 

the date RFG is no longer required in 

the affected opt-in area) when the 

petition is approved. The opt-out 

regulations also provide that EPA will 

publish a Federal Register notice 

announcing the approval of any opt-out 

petition and the effective date of such 

opt-out. If a SIP revision is required, the 

effective date of EPA’s approval of the 

opt-out can be no less than 90 days from 

the effective date of EPA’s approval of 

the revision to the SIP that removes RFG 

as a control measure (40 CFR 

1090.290(d)). 

EPA determined in the RFG ‘‘Opt-out 

Rule’’ that it would not be necessary to 

conduct a separate rulemaking for each 

future opt-out request (61 FR 35673 at 

35675 (July 8, 1996)). EPA established a 

petition process to address, on a caseby-case basis, future individual state 

requests to opt-out of the RFG program. 

The RFG opt-out regulations establish 

clear and objective criteria for EPA to 

apply. These regulatory criteria address 

when a state’s petition is complete and 

the appropriate transition time for 

opting out. As EPA stated in the 

preamble to the RFG Opt-out Rule, this 

application of regulatory criteria on a 

case-by-case basis to individual opt-out 

requests does not require notice-andcomment rulemaking, either under CAA 

section 307(d) or the Administrative 

Procedure Act. Thus, in this action, EPA 

is applying the criteria and following 

the procedures specified in the RFG optout regulations to approve Maine’s 

petition. 

C. Opt-Out of RFG for the Southern 

Maine Area 

On August 20, 2020, Maine submitted 

a petition to the EPA Administrator 

requesting to opt-out from the RFG 

program for York, Cumberland, 

Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Kennebec, 

Knox and Lincoln counties (the 

Southern Maine Area), which are part of 

the Portland and Midcoast Ozone 

Maintenance Areas for the 1997 ozone 

NAAQS. EPA finds that Maine has 

provided the required information in 

the petition, per 40 CFR 1090.290(d). In 

order to fulfill the requirements of the 

RFG opt-out regulations, on August 20, 

2020, Maine submitted a revision to its 

maintenance plan for the Southern 

Maine Area to remove the emissions 

reductions associated with the use of 

RFG in this area and to demonstrate that 

the RFG opt-out would not interfere 

with the area’s ability to attain or 

maintain the 1997, 2008 and 2015 ozone 

NAAQS and any other NAAQS as 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 134 / Friday, July 16, 2021 / Rules and Regulations 37683 

required by CAA section 110(l) (40 

CFR1090.290(d)). EPA published a 

proposed approval of the SIP revision 

on March 25, 2021 (86 FR 15844) and 

a final approval of the SIP revision on 

June 2, 2021 (86 FR 29520), with an 

effective date of July 2, 2021. The RFG 

opt-out regulations provide that the optout effective date shall be no less than 

90 days from the EPA SIP approval 

effective date (40 CFR 1090(d)(2)(ii)). 

EPA is unaware of any reason that the 

effective date should be postponed, and 

therefore, is establishing an opt-out 

effective date of September 30, 2021 for 

the Southern Maine Area. 

As provided by the RFG Opt-out Rule 

and the opt-out regulations in 40 CFR 

1090.290(e), EPA will publish a final 

rule to remove the seven counties in the 

Southern Maine Area from the list of 

RFG covered areas in 40 CFR 

1090.285(d) after the effective date of 

the opt-out. EPA believes that 

completing this ministerial exercise to 

revise the list of covered areas in the 

Code of Federal Regulations after the 

effective date of the opt-out allows the 

opt-out to become effective within the 

timeframe described in 40 CFR 

1090.290(d), and allows EPA to keep the 

lists of RFG covered areas in 40 CFR 

1090.285 up to date. 

III. Action 

EPA is approving Maine’s petition 

because it contained the information 

required by 40 CFR 1090(d) in its 

petition to EPA to opt-out of the RFG 

program and revised the approved 

maintenance plan for the 1997 ozone 

NAAQS for the Southern Maine Area to 

remove the emissions reductions 

associated with RFG. EPA is also 

determining the opt-out effective date 

by applying the criteria in 40 CFR 

1090.290(d). As discussed in Section 

II.A. above, the RFG opt-out regulations 

require that if a state included RFG as 

a control measure in an approved SIP, 

the state must revise the SIP, reflecting 

the removal of RFG as a control measure 

before an opt-out can be effective, and 

the opt-out cannot be effective less than 

90 days after the effective date of the 

approval of the SIP revision. EPA 

published a final approval of Maine’s 

maintenance plan revision and 

noninterference demonstration on June 

2, 2021 (86 FR 29520), with an effective 

date of July 2, 2021. 

In summary, EPA is notifying the 

public that it has applied its regulatory 

criteria to approve the petition by Maine 

to opt-out of the RFG program for the 

Southern Maine Area of the Portland 

and Midcoast ozone maintenance area 

for the 1997 ozone NAAQS and is 

thereby removing the prohibition on the 

sale of conventional gasoline in that 

area as of September 30, 2021 (40 CFR 

1090.290(d)). This opt-out effective date 

applies to retailers, wholesale 

purchasers, consumers, refiners, 

importers, and distributors. 

Michael S. Regan, 

Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2021–15127 Filed 7–15–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6560–50–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 81 

[EPA–HQ–OAR–2020–0292; FRL–7822–01– 

OAR] 

RIN 2060–AU79 

Redesignation of Certain 

Unclassifiable Areas for the 2010 

1-Hour Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Primary 

National Ambient Air Quality Standard 

(NAAQS) 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) is redesignating the 

Lancaster County, Nebraska and Milam 

County, Texas unclassifiable areas 

initially designated during the EPA’s 

Round 2 air quality designations for the 

2010 1-Hour Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) 

Primary National Ambient Air Quality 

Standard (NAAQS). Specifically, the 

EPA now has sufficient information to 

determine that these unclassifiable areas 

in Nebraska and Texas are attaining the 

2010 1-hour SO2 primary NAAQS. 

Therefore, the EPA is redesignating 

these areas to attainment/unclassifiable 

for the 2010 1-hour SO2 primary 

NAAQS. The EPA is also approving 

these states’ requests to redesignate the 

areas. 

DATES: This final rule is effective on 

August 16, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: The EPA has established a 

docket for this action under Docket ID 

No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2020–0292. All 

documents in the docket are listed in 

the https://www.regulations.gov. 

Although listed in the index, some 

information is not publicly available, 

e.g., Confidential Business Information 

or other information whose disclosure is 

restricted by statute. Certain other 

material, such as copyrighted material, 

is not placed on the internet and will be 

publicly available only in hard copy 

form. 

Out of an abundance of caution for 

members of the public and our staff, the 

EPA Docket Center and Reading Room 

are currently closed to the public, with 

limited exceptions, to reduce the risk of 

transmitting COVID–19. Our Docket 

Center staff will continue to provide 

remote customer service via email, 

phone, and webform. For further 

information on the EPA Docket Center 

services and the current status, please 

visit us online at https://www.epa.gov/ 

dockets. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

general questions concerning this 

action, please contact Gobeail 

McKinley, U.S. EPA, Office of Air 

Quality Planning and Standards, Air 

Quality Policy Division, C539–04, 

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, by 

email at mckinley.gobeail@epa.gov. The 

following EPA Regional office contacts 

can answer questions regarding the 

specific areas being redesignated: 

U.S. EPA REGIONAL OFFICE 

CONTACTS: 

Regional office Affected state Contact Telephone Email 

Region VI ........................... Texas ................................ Robert Imhoff .................... (214) 665–7262 ................. imhoff.robert@epa.gov. 

Region VII .......................... Nebraska ........................... Will Stone .......................... (913) 551–7714 ................. stone.william@epa.gov. 

Most EPA offices are closed to reduce 

the risk of transmitting COVID–19, but 

staff remain available via telephone and 

email. The EPA encourages the public to 

review information related to the 

redesignations at https://www.epa.gov/ 

sulfur-dioxide-designations and in the 

public docket for these SO2

redesignations at https://

www.regulations.gov under Docket ID 

No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2020–0292. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Throughout this document ‘‘we,’’ ‘‘us,’’ 

or ‘‘our’’ means the EPA. 

I. Background 

After the promulgation of a new or 

revised NAAQS, the EPA is required to 

designate all areas of the country, 

pursuant to section 107(d)(1)–(2) of the 

Clean Air Act (CAA). For the 2010 


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